Marsinah's song heard around the world
By Janet Parker and Bec Conroy
On March 10, Indonesian playwright Ratna Sarumpaet was arrested along with her daughter and eight others for organising a protest against the "re-election" of Suharto for a seventh term as president.
The regime did not anticipate the student-led upheaval. On the eve of the resignation of Suharto, Ratna and those detained with her were found guilty of "ignoring a police order" and released. They has originally faced charges that could have resulted in a 12-year sentence.
During Ratna's detention, members of the International Centre for Women Playwrights joined the campaign to free the political prisoners. They organised readings of Ratna's play Marsinah: A Song from the Underworld in 25 cities across the USA, Canada, Austria and Australia.
The Sydney reading was staged on June 22 at the Belvoir Street Theatre by Playworks (National Centre for Women Performance Artists), the Actors Centre and Culture Lab.
The play is the story of Marsinah, the woman worker who was assaulted, raped and murdered in May 1993 after leading a strike in her factory. It is a powerful and passionate work that strongly condemns the brutality and greed of the regime.
Ratna managed to deal with images of the oppression of factory workers by the New Order regime, and oppression of women. Ratna's decision to set the play in the afterlife enabled the language to take on an almost haunting, surreal quality that helped to disguise implicating the New Order government in the act of oppression. Despite this, the audience is able to gain a very distinct idea of the nature of the oppression and of who is directing it.
Launching the play, Elizabeth Biok of the International Commission of Jurists talked about her experience as an observer of anti-subversion trials in Indonesia last year. She spoke of the incredible violations of procedure in the course of the trials and the overt bias of the judges.
While Ratna has been released, Biok emphasised that the real test for the new regime would be its willingness to release the old Communists jailed in 1965 and the young members of the People's Democratic Party.
The play has been translated by Robyn Fallick and published by Aberrant Genotype Press and is available at the Feminist Bookshop in Balmain Rd, Lilyfield.